Saturday, April 19 was Record Store Day. My favorite 10 year old and I made our second annual pilgrimage to as many shops as we could visit in St Paul and Minneapolis.

We started at Extreme Noise Records on Lake Street. We rushed to get there at noon to see Grant Hart. We got there a little late and heard a young hard core band instead. For better or for worse I learned from the very young gentlemen next to us that we hadn’t missed him; he hadn’t played yet. That being said these are the same two I overheard say, “I don’t think this is him,” while listening to the young woman on stage. I assured them it wasn’t him. I enjoyed the band; too loud for my 10 year old date.

Next on the agenda, Cheapo Records on Lake Street. This was more of a walk-by as we were headed to lunch at Stella’s. It was good to see the place full; Cheapo has been a tried and true place for recorded music for decades, although I’m much better acquainted with the St Paul location. Best album I ever got there? The Hawaiian Pups.

Moving off Lake Street, we made our third stop at Treehouse Records. My 10 year old spent most of her time rolling her eyes here as I said—I remember that show—at all of their posters. They do a good job stocking local bands. Although our highlight was the Shel Silverstein tribute album; not local obviously but a great record.

Just a few blocks away we made our fifth stop at Fifth Element Records. I am always impressed with how friendly they are there, despite the fact that we can’t be their target demographic. Along with recorded music, they stock a lot of Rhymesayers t-shirts and hoodies. They also have some toy break dancers like army-man-type figures. I’m putting that on my birthday list for June!

HiFi Records was number six on our tour. We came through the back alley and were welcomed by a band in that great back hall they have. It was comforting to hear The Replacements on in the shop and my date got a gluten-free, vegan donut from Totally Baked Donuts. Meeting the donut sop owner (aka Donut Fairy) was worth the price of admission. And I heard the donut was very good. Next year, I might make time to get my hair cut there as well. Talk about a one-stop-shop.

Number six and a half on our tour was a failed attempt to visit No Name Records. Turns out they moved and never told Google maps. Now it’s just a drug paraphernalia shop. We didn’t stay long.

Number seven was a total bonus; we passed Agharta Records on University headed to St Paul and popped in. It’s a great location. They have a fantastic collection of records. It looks like they had a few turntables for sale too. (They may have just been on display.)

Deeper into St Paul, by blocks, we visited Barley Brothers Records as number seven on our journey. It’s on Raymond. They had a band playing and folks were hanging out in back. The audience had clearly been hanging out in record shops for 20-30 years so folks were pretty comfortable. They had a nice collection of posters for upcoming shows, which I always like to see.

To get to number eight we hopped on 94 and raced to downtown St Paul to visit Eclipse. They also have a nice selection of records. We caught Pink Mink’s Christy Hunt as DJ. I was able to show off the favorite album of my youth, the Great Rock and Roll Swindle. My date was not impressed. She was, however, impressed with Eclipse’s neighbor, Candyland, where we stopped for some rock candy and gummi bears.

Number nine could also count as number eleven as at least one of us returned to the scene of the crime later but two of us visited Hymie’s Vintage Records just in time to catch Chastity Brown play a few songs. It was packed and she sounded great. Hymie’s always does a nice job setting up a whole block party for Record Store Day. The weather could not have been better. Hymie’s RSD block party might replace Grand Old Day for official first day of summer this year.

Finally our last stop was the Electric Fetus, one of our favorite music shops in town. We were just in time to see Erik Koskinen and Frankie Lee—both celebrating recent releases. We just missed They Might Be Giants, which clearly drew a big crowd. My date was sad when she realized TMBGs sang both the Malcolm in the Middle and Big Bang theme songs – but was consoled to see hometown favorites. We ended the day buying our third copy of Jeremy Messersmith’s Heart Murmurs (we over-listen and wear them out), a new release by Imelda May and received Koskinen’s CD as a fun present from a friend.

So there’s the tally: 10 shops around 2 cities in 5 hours. That’s two more than last year. Maybe we’ll get to a dozen in 2016!

Leonora Carrington was an artist and writer. Her art is like a mashup of Beatrice Potter and Hieronymus Bosch, intricate and complicated with the nursery rhyme sweetness of Potter and dark edge of Bosch. There’s something compelling that makes you look closer. Her life reads the same way.

Born in the UK, Leonora met fellow artist Max Ernst and moved to France until Ernst was arrested by the Nazis for “degenerate art.” After that she moved to Spain where she became increasingly anxious and had a breakdown. Eventually she moved to Mexico where she wrote about her psychotic experience in her novel Down Below.

Down Below or The Womb of the World is also a shadow opera playing at Bedlam Theater; it presents vignettes from her life and work based specifically on three stories, The Hearing Trumpet, The Stone Door and The Oval Lady. It is a collaboration of puppeteer Erik Ruin, musicians Spires That in the Sunset Rise (Kathleen Baird and Taralie Peterson), puppeteer Liz Schachterle and percussionist Kevin Cosgrove.

The work is compelling like her life. There are scenes that are like a nursery rhyme, where the character walks through the village to the town. There are scenes with a darker edge, like when the young Leonora meets the old Leonora, who says I thought you’d never get here. Old Leonora persuades the young Leonora to jump into a boiling cauldron and then proceeds to make a boat from the bones of the young Leonora to escape to find the stone door.

The music and sound are chilling. But again there there’s a dichotomy of children’s tale and nightmare. Peterson has a voice like Little Red Riding Hood; where Baird sounds like a wolf. The music is otherworldly. It helps suspend belief, and helps draw the audience into a shadow puppet world, which by its nature is not realistic like a movie and yet somehow can conjure the same empathy.

I saw the story with my favorite 10 year old date. The show isn’t for every 10 year old; it’s a little scary and you have to be able to follow a story with deep edges and blurry lines. But seeing it with a kid means the drive home is going to be like an English Literature test. We discussed the motif of the stone door. And we compared the show to the kid’s book by Debra Fraiser, On the Day You Were Born.

There’s a scene in the show where the character is half dead and half born. We decided that was the limbo stage of reincarnation. Fraiser’s book has always seemed like a picture of that same limbo – only much closer to being born. We also discussed the boat of bones, which was disturbing to my date until I pointed out that maybe this was another allegory that really represented the idea that she was able to draw from inner strength to move forward.

Again a compelling show – more Hieronymus Bosch than Beatrice Potter.

The night began with a solo by Paul Metzger; we are big fans. Most shows start with a musical act. Sunday will be good with the International Novelty Gamelan.

Gamelan is a collection of traditional Javanese musical instruments. They are as beautiful to watch as they are to hear. There are gold colored gongs, metallophones, drums and hybrid drum-cymbals and bowed instruments. They are set up with ornate frames.

The International Novelty Gamelan is a group of six musicians: Elaine Evans, Kevin Cosgrove, Chris Parker, David Morrison, Kathy Knight and Kristen Murray. Last night they celebrated their first vinyl release: MetallaphoniaI. (It also includes an audio download. So you can use one; save the other.) The crowd was impressive for a Monday night and were attentive and appreciative. I heard someone say, “It’s like listening to elves playing in the woods.”

I don’t know about elves but there’s something about the Gamelan that feels a little magical. Like any orchestra, the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. All of the members play several instruments. Because most of the instruments are percussion, it’s a lot of hitting with a mallet but also controlling the sound by carefully tempering the instrument. Each move, each sounds seems simple but somehow it all comes together with easy complexity when they play together.

They started with a song called Adding Machine. It was bright and clanging and is featured on their new release. It’s a great name in part if you picture elves in the woods playing a song called Adding Machine. And that picture captures something of the experience. There is a hint of modernity to the songs but something deeply rooted and familiar like a playground rhyme or a lullaby.

The second song was a duet of sorts with the drone band that played after them. (The drone band doesn’t have a name yet; they were an interesting mostly-brass drone band.) It was brassy with a beat; interesting to see the mash up. It was something old and something new that created a new twist to local music.

International Novelty Gamelan could play anywhere, to any age but Tuesday night folks were there to see or learn about the innovation of the old and new. And the Icehouse is notoriously a place to see off-duty musicians so I think there’s potential for the word to spread and we just might see a unique Minnesota-twanged Javanese influence spreading.

Thursday, April 16 I heard a cover of Lorde’s Royals on the trombone and I’m not even sure if that’s the best thing I heard that night. On the Third Thursday of the month, Real Phonic Radio Hour presents music at the James J Hill Reference Library. Each month is something different; April was a month of instrumental wows!

The Charlie Hunter Trio brought us Jazz – really happy, very loud Jazz with a twist of upbeat blues. Charlie Hunter plays guitar. It’s not experimental, but it’s different. He did a series of four albums, each highlighting different artists including The Cars, Hank Williams, Core Porter and Duke Ellington. And that’s the kind of range you hear on stage – everything is different with an air of familiarity – including a brief interlude from White Christmas.

Hunter also serves as the glue between Bobby Previte on the drums and Carly Meyers on the trombone. Previte played the fastest cymbals I have ever heard then turned around to treat the cymbal like a Theremin, shaping the aura of the sound without touching the instrument. He played the drum rims like a pinball machine and proceeded to play the whole stage like a drum – literally jumping down from the drums and playing any surface in his path. Meyers played Lorde on the trombone – and it was really good. What else can I say? There were songs where she nailed the circus trombone or New Orleans processional march and even a little blues but really … Lorde.

Molly Maher played serious guitar with Gabriela Sweet accompanied by JT Bates and Chris Bates. I saw them play together at the Lowertown Guitar Festival last summer too. Both accomplished guitarists. The stage looked like a very high end guitar store! Sweet played an sang a Cuban dance song; it was beautiful. She and her music seem so elegant. Maher brings an energy and an Americana sensibility and it’s fun to watch how much she loves the music and feel the contagion of the songs. They played a song by Kevin Washington that sounds like a storm rolling in featuring everyone on stage playing claps and rolls of thunder to fill the room.

Thom Middlebrook read Spring by Edna St Millay, a good reminder that while we may be happy to have April visit us “babbling and strewing flowers” that we’re still on a “flight of uncarpeted stairs” on our way to having our brains “eaten by maggots” underground. Hearing poetry read aloud is always a luxury! Middlebrook’s choices always make my MA in Literature seem almost worth it.

Bookending the night as usual was Erik Koskinen and the Real Phonic Radio Band (Paul Bergen, Frankie Lee and JT Bates). This month we got a sneak preview of his latest album, which will be released on Record Store Day at the Electric Fetus. A highlight was Will You Feel my Love, which we’ve heard rehearsed or workshopped over many months at Real Phonic shows. In fact the new release was all recorded at Real Phonic shows. It will be fun to hear.